Lessons from Patrick Collison

Patrick Collison, the Irish entrepreneur who co-founded the digital payments giant Stripe with his brother John, is as well-known for his insightful perspectives on technology, business, and learning as he is for his company's success. An avid reader and deep thinker, Collison has shared a wealth of knowledge through interviews, essays, and his personal blog.

On Startups and Building a Company

On the reality of "overnight success": "Eventually, after a couple of years, Stripe started to become an overnight success." [1]
The core ingredients for success: "If you have a really good product and you hire really good people, it's very hard for it to go wrong." [2]
The 'Collison Installation' for user acquisition: In the early days of Y Combinator, the Collison brothers were known for their aggressive and hands-on approach to getting new users, a technique now famously dubbed the "Collison Installation." Instead of just sending a link, they would offer to set up their beta for potential users on the spot. [3]
Focus on the unnoticed problems: Stripe's success came from identifying and solving a major "pain point" that many others had overlooked: the difficulty for developers to accept online payments. [4]
Think about the total addressable market from the start: Collison has expressed a wish that they had mapped out their expanding circles of customers earlier on, from startups to all businesses, and built the team to serve that larger market. [5]
Build organizational capacity ahead of current needs: Experienced founders are often willing to invest in building the organizational structure for the company they want to become, not just the company they are today. [5]
The CEO's core responsibilities: According to Collison, the CEO's primary roles are to set the strategy and culture, and to select the senior management team. [6]
Don't be too precious about company culture: Collison believes that a common mistake is to treat company culture as static. Instead, it should be viewed as dynamic and subject to revision as the company grows and evolves. [6][7]
A rapidly scaling organization is unnatural: The typical human organizations we experience (families, schools) don't scale at the rapid pace of a successful startup. This requires a different approach to building and managing the organization. [7]
The importance of a long-term vision: Stripe's mission is to increase the GDP of the internet, a far-reaching goal that guides their focus on solving fundamental global payment accessibility issues. [5][8]

On Advice for Young People

Follow your genuine interests, not predefined paths: Collison emphasizes pursuing your passions with confidence, rather than following the "train tracks laid by others." [4][9]
Experiment early and often: He advises young people to embrace experimentation early in their careers when the cost and risk are lower. [4]
Go deep on things: "Become an expert. In particular, try to go deep on multiple things." [9][10]
Discover what you enjoy by age 20: He suggests that one of the main goals by this age is to have a sense of what kind of work you find enjoyable, as this is unlikely to drastically change. [9][11]
Don't over-stress about the immediate value of your interests: While not to be ignored, the perceived value of what you're going deep on shouldn't be the only deciding factor. [9][10]
Work hard if you enjoy it: "To the extent that you enjoy working hard, do. Subject to that constraint, it's not clear that the returns to effort ever diminish substantially." [9][10]
Leverage the internet to connect with experts: "Make friends over the internet with people who are great at things you're interested in. The internet is one of the biggest advantages you have over prior generations." [9][10]
Read a lot: A simple yet profound piece of advice that Collison himself embodies. [9][10]
Trust your judgment, even if it goes against the grain: "If you think something is important but people older than you don't hold it in high regard, there's a reasonable chance that you're right and they're wrong. Status lags by a generation or more." [9][12]
Don't judge your success by your current peer group: Your trajectory is your own, and it's a mistake to measure it against those immediately around you. [9]
Embrace being weird as a teenager: While social skills are important, being unconventional in your pursuits is often a good sign. [9]
Develop your own worldview: "A large fraction of what people around you believe is mistaken. Internalize this and practice coming up with your own worldview." [9][12]
Seek out environments with high standards: One of the most valuable things you can do in your 20s is to work in a place where you can learn what "great" actually looks like, as this will permanently elevate your own standards. [13]

On Learning and Knowledge

Become a voracious learner: Collison is known for his extensive reading habits, driven by a feeling that there is "so much stuff to know." [3][14]
Reading as an active process: He advocates for an active approach to reading: skim, skip, backtrack, and even discard books that aren't engaging. The book is there to serve you, not the other way around. [15]
Follow what the people you admire, admired: To find truly influential ideas, look at the sources that inspired the people you look up to. [15]
Learn by making things: Operating in a space with uncertainty and building something is a very different and valuable experience compared to simply learning about it. [9]
Keep learning to maintain your edge: On weekends, Collison has been known to have tutors for subjects like law and physics, demonstrating a continuous drive to learn. [14]

On Decision Making

Prioritize decision speed: "If you can make twice as many decisions at half the precision, that's actually often better." [3][16]
Make more decisions with less confidence: In most cases, you can course-correct, so treating fast decisions as a capability in itself is an asset. [3][16]
Categorize decisions by reversibility and impact: Focus your deliberation on decisions that are large in magnitude and difficult to reverse. [3][16]
Deliberately make fewer decisions: As a leader, if you are making too many decisions, it might indicate an organizational or institutional breakdown. Empower others to make decisions. [3][16]
Focus on improving your options, not just the decision itself: "How do I make sure the decisions I'm confronted with end up being better?" [3][16]
Design feedback mechanisms: In an organization, it's more about creating systems for continuous improvement and feedback rather than focusing on isolated binary decisions. [16]
Make asymmetric bets: Look for opportunities where the potential upside is significant, while the downside is manageable. [3][17]

On Technology and the Future

The ease of doing things shapes what gets created: Technologies like cloud services are crucial because they make it easier for people to build and innovate. [1]
Stripe's mission is to grow the GDP of the internet: This vision extends beyond just payment processing to empowering global economic participation. [8]
The internet is a powerful tool for global development: Collison sees the internet as one of the most important technologies ever created for enabling development worldwide. [8]
Advocating for "Progress Studies": He is a proponent of a new field of study focused on understanding the drivers of technological and social progress to accelerate it. [7]
Key areas for future technological innovation: Collison has highlighted the need for improvements in medical technology, climate change mitigation, and making the benefits of technology accessible to billions more people. [1][7]
The future of programming environments: He believes current programming environments are "hopelessly primitive" and sees a future with more intuitive and powerful tools. [1]
AI will augment, not just automate: He envisions AI as a tool that can help clean up and improve code, and act as a partner in the creative process. [13]
The next big app may be built by a non-coder: The rise of no-code platforms will empower a new generation of creators. [18]
Understanding APIs will be as crucial as reading and writing: As technology becomes more integrated into every job, the ability to understand how different systems communicate will be a fundamental skill. [18]

On Hiring and Team Building

The team you build defines your company's success: Collison stresses the critical importance of focusing on building the right team from the very beginning. [4]
Hire for intellectual honesty and a bias toward action: Don't over-optimize for credentials. Look for smart people who care about the mission and get things done. [5]
Hire the smallest team possible in the early days: An ideal team size to iterate quickly on product-market fit is between 2 and 10 people. [5]
Hire for specialized skills earlier than you might think: Roles in areas like partnerships and business development can unlock growth sooner than many founders expect. [5]
Look for people you genuinely enjoy spending time with: Given the amount of time spent at work, it's worth prioritizing finding colleagues who are pleasant and warm. [17]
Surround yourself with influential peers: The right peer group can have a profound impact on your trajectory through constructive debate and collaboration. [4]

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